LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Drew Smyly is not averse to changing things up, if it will help him win a job.

Or even if it will help him get better.

The second-year pitcher, who won the job as the Detroit Tigers’ fifth starter in spring training last year, and is having another spring battle for that same job this year, knows that he’ll need to pull out all the stops to do it again.

To help him in the battle with Rick Porcello for that fifth spot, the lefty Smyly has been working hard on adding a change-up to his repertoire for use against right-handed hitters.

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And he figured he threw about 10 of them in his start against the Braves on Thursday, as he went four scoreless innings in the Tigers’ 9-2 win.

“I threw a lot of them today. I love it when he (catcher Alex Avila) calls it. This is the time to practice on it. Get work. Every game, I feel like it’s easier to throw, and it gets better. You know, it’s fun going out and having ... pitching well with it,” Smyly said. “A lot of those foul balls early in the count were change-ups. ... Yeah, a lot. To almost every right-hander, I’d say.

“All my pitches, I’ve been throwing pretty good. Got a good feel for it, throwing strikes. So far, so good.”

Through nine innings of spring work, Smyly (2-0) has yet to allow a run, striking out six and walking one. Four of those strikeouts came Thursday, three of them looking in the second inning, when he sat down Freddie Freeman, B.J. Upton and Juan Francisco.

He got the two left-handers on curveballs, and Upton with a fastball.

But the change-up has become a useful tool, too, after a rookie season where he threw the pitch hardly at all.

“His change-up is better, and you can tell he’s spent some time thinking about it over the winter, and working on it a little bit, and working on it down here in spring training,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “And he’s showing some results. It’s not going to be perfect every time, but it’s been pretty good.”

It’s hard to develop confidence in a new pitch, when you’re still trying to develop confidence in yourself as a big-league pitcher, though.

“Really tough. That’s why I didn’t really throw it last year. I started working on it in the middle of the season, and it just was never really there. It’s already tough enough as it is, so to come back start working on a new pitch mid-season ... I mean, it just wasn’t worth it, wasn’t there for me. It’s just hard enough trying to get hitters out by itself,” Smyly said. “But having an offseason to tweak it, and a lot of reps thrown, a lot of bullpens with it, long toss with it, it’s easier to get a feel. Having an offseason and spring to work on it is definitely an advantage.”

Smyly’s scoreless start just added to a streak of success for Tigers starters. Dating back seven games to Feb. 28, the team’s starting pitchers have combined for 23 scoreless innings.

In the regular season, pitchers would be trying to keep that momentum going, inspired by the successes of their comrades. Does it work the same in the spring, when people are trying to get work in, work on new pitches like Smyly’s change-up?

“Yes, and no. When you see other starters go out there and just mow lineups down, and have success, you want to almost one-up it. You don’t want to watch everybody else do good, and you go out there and suck it up. It just gives you that fire, to repeat it. If you can do it, I can do it,” Smyly said.

“It’s fun when everyone’s pitching well, when everyone’s doing good. It’s just making everyone compete against each other, to pitch just as good as the last person.”

The Tigers took a 1-0 lead in the fourth on Prince Fielder’s RBI single, a lead that stood until the Tigers tacked on five more in the seventh. Nick Castellanos drove in two with a bases-loaded double, then Ramon Cabrera, Danny Worth and Bryan Holaday added RBI singles.

Worth doubled in another run in the two-run eighth, following an RBI double by Tyler Collins. The Tigers had baserunners thrown out on both hits.

Holaday, who got his first hit of the spring Wednesday, tacked on another run with a ninth-inning RBI double.

Matthew B. Mowery covers the Tigers for Journal Register Company. Email him at matt.mowery@oakpress.com and follow him on Twitter @matthewbmowery.